


Talk It Out: Kuroki

by defeatedbyabridge



Category: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-04
Updated: 2012-11-04
Packaged: 2017-11-17 23:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/554252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defeatedbyabridge/pseuds/defeatedbyabridge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroki's been sent for mandatory talk therapy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Talk It Out: Kuroki

**Author's Note:**

  * For [borrowedphrases](https://archiveofourown.org/users/borrowedphrases/gifts).



> (This may become a series if I can find the self-discipline XD)

_Thirteen years ago..._

Kuroki knocked on the door, pissed off that he was there, especially pissed off that he had to knock on a door in his own base. Well, unless it was a bathroom or something. But other than that, this was his base now. Didn't he get some perks?

The door opened, and Kazushiro let him in. 

He was a mess. Rumpled shirt, no tie, no jacket. Kuroki eyed him grumpily until he was gestured to a seat on an annoyingly beige lounge. Deceptively soft. Kuroki sank, and kept sinking, until he felt like his knees were up around his ears. 

"I don't need to be here." 

"The rule was that everyone needs a chance to talk about it," Kazushiro said equably. "That applies to you, same as everyone else."

"I'm in charge. I don't have time."

His hand was on the doorknob when Kazushiro's voice, expertly timed, observed, "You're young to be in charge."

Dammit.

"Yes, I am. But that doesn't mean I-"

"Sit down."

The only person on the base who could order him was the base's main doctor. Goddammit.

* * * 

_Ten years ago_

"I'm over this. I really am," Kuroki said dangerously. It'd been a month, and he'd been hoping the visits were settling down to once every two months or so instead of once every three, sometimes every four, weeks. That was another annoying thing about the man. Granted, if anyone needed him, he responded within minutes -- seconds, sometimes. But when he was setting the agenda himself, he was irregular as hell. 

Kuroki suspected it was part of trying to make _him_ more flexible, but he didn't have any evidence. Didn't mention it in case it made him look more paranoid.

"I'm trying something new today," Kazushiro said amiably, pulling his loose grey cardigan around himself. He gestured at a small doll sitting on the side table. It had curly brown hair. "Don't talk to me, talk to him. Pretend he's Jin, or Sakurada-san, or anyone else you're missing. Tell him how you feel-"

Kuroki had his sidearm out instantly and shot a neat hole through the doll's middle. 

"Yes, I know exactly how much they cost, I sign the requisition forms," he snapped, and left.

* * * 

_Nine years ago_

Kuroki sat with the stupid doll Jin on his lap, running his fingers through its hair, over and over. Didn't look like Jin. It was annoyingly soothing, and wasn't that Jin himself in a nutshell? This was maybe the tenth iteration. Destroying one through nine had been fun, but he found one day he just didn't... want to, any more.

"Jin's birthday today," Kazushiro observed. Kuroki looked up at him wearily, preparing to either say something small and serious, because Kazushiro wasn't an entirely bad guy for all that he was a talker, or to snap something, because hell if he wanted to give the asshole yet another way into his psyche. 

But he found he couldn't do either. He looked back down again, at the doll's fuzzy brown hair. He swallowed, hard. Last birthday they'd spent together, Jin had worked, of course. But Kuroki'd surprised him with dinner at his desk, then a bottle of wine up on the roof. He'd meant to get Jin drowsy enough to get him to bed before two a.m. for once, so he'd get six or seven hours of sleep, for once. That'd been his main gift.

Except they'd chatted until six thirty, at which point both had said, "Shit," then they'd run off in opposite directions to shower and get ready for their shifts. 

He'd nearly passed out numerous times that day, but it was still one of the best nights he'd ever had. 

There was a hand on his shoulder. Kuroki thought for a moment that if only Kazushiro had said something, something stupidly insightful or sympathetic, he could've hit him. 

(He wouldn't've hit him. You don't hit doctors.)

But he didn't. He just gazed into Kuroki's eyes, his own crinkled a little, and weren't there more lines than there'd been a few years ago? Well, that was true of everyone, but--

"Who did you lose?" Kuroki asked, quietly.

* * *

_Six months ago_

"It's not _him_ ," Kuroki said wearily. "It is, but it isn't. His body's still in subspace."

Kazushiro passed a hand over his eyes. "Shit."

"Yeah. Exactly." 

"I need to see him, too."

"...hell with that."

"Commander." 

Kuroki sighed. "I'll ask him."

* * *

_Five and a half months ago_

"You're even harder to get anything out of than he is." 

Jin grinned, unreasonably pleased with that, though it wasn't a competition, and really, Kurorin should say something to this man. "I've been talking the entire time."

"Exactly." 

Jin laughed.

* * *

_Today..._

Kazushiro's hand didn't need to be on his arm.

Kuroki looked down at it pointedly, but the man didn't move his damn hand. What did he think he was going to do? Leap to Jin's rescue? -- again? 

......all right, so maybe he had a point.

He'd gone along to help Jin out of subspace. Stupid, maybe, he was still weak from it, after all, in spite of the special suits the engineers had made them. And the Busters had done 95% of the work. 

But he'd been there when Jin, the real Jin, had first opened his eyes. And hell if he wasn't going to stick around now. 

Jin swung his jacket around his shoulders, and if he was a little shakier, a little thinner, than his avatar? Kuroki wasn't going to mention it. He watched, smiling, just a little, as Jin made his way over to the door. "I'm ready, Kurorin. Sweep me off my feet. Take me home."

Kuroki snorted at him, and started down the corridor towards his rooms, at Jin's pace. Jin wasn't staying anywhere else. Jin, fortunately, hadn't complained.

"See you at 0800 tomorrow," Kazushiro called.

They stiffened in unison.

"You thought you'd get out of talking to me?" 

Kuroki said something rude under his breath, and Jin made a sign next to him. They continued shuffling towards Kuroki's rooms to the sound of Kazushiro's laughter behind them.


End file.
